Coffee's Phenylindanes Fight Alzheimer's Plaque

Maybe when we get some actual stroke leadership we will get what we need. A protocol of actual amounts needed each day. Precise research needed. 

We need followup and we need it NOW! Whom is going to take responsibility and get that done? 

Our fucking failures of stroke associations will DO NOTHING. Your doctor will DO NOTHING. Your stroke hospital will DO NOTHING.  You're screwed. 

And why are they doing NOTHING? Laziness? Incompetence? Or just don't care? No leadership? No strategy? Not my job?

 

Coffee's Phenylindanes Fight Alzheimer's Plaque 

VIDEO + ARTICLE:

Roasting coffee beans produces Phenylindanes. Phenylindanes uniquely prevent – or rather, inhibit – both tau and beta amyloid plaque, the two big culprits behind Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Learn how they impact cognitive decline. 

Dr. Weaver enlisted Dr. Ross Mancini, a research fellow in medicinal chemistry and Yanfei Wang, a biologist, to help. The team chose to investigate three different types of coffee – light roast, dark roast, and decaffeinated dark roast.

3 Roast Coffees - Unexpected Results

"The caffeinated and de-caffeinated dark roast both had identical potencies in our initial experimental tests," says Dr. Mancini. "So we observed early on that its protective effect could not be due to caffeine."

Dr. Mancini then identified a group of compounds known as phenylindanes, which emerge as a result of the roasting process for coffee beans. Phenylindanes are unique in that they are the only compound investigated in the study that prevent – or rather, inhibit – both beta amyloid and tau, two protein fragments common in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, from clumping. "So phenylindanes are a dual-inhibitor. Very interesting, we were not expecting that." says Dr. Weaver.

Dark Roast More Protective

As roasting leads to higher quantities of phenylindanes, dark roasted coffee appears to be more protective than light roasted coffee.

"It's the first time anybody's investigated how phenylindanes interact with the proteins that are responsible for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's," says Dr. Mancini. "The next step would be to investigate how beneficial these compounds are, and whether they have the ability to enter the bloodstream, or cross the blood-brain barrier."

Natural Compound

The fact that it's a natural compound versus synthetic is also a major advantage, says Dr. Weaver.

"Mother Nature is a much better chemist than we are and Mother Nature is able to make these compounds. If you have a complicated compound, it's nicer to grow it in a crop, harvest the crop, grind the crop out and extract it than try to make it."

But, he admits, there is much more research needed before it can translate into potential therapeutic options.

"What this study does is take the epidemiological evidence and try to refine it and to demonstrate that there are indeed components within coffee that are beneficial to warding off cognitive decline. It's interesting but are we suggesting that coffee is a cure? Absolutely not."